Do you remember as a child the first violet poking through the sidewalk cracks? Or finding the first clover of spring? I do!
Spring plants are the ultimate easter egg hunt for little ones. Where there was once bare earth or snow, sprouts delicate leaves and then blooms a flower seemingly too exotic for our cold Canadian climate. As a child, these first vestiges of spring were like being reunited with a long-lost friend, arriving to welcome me into longer days and warmer nights. With that curious child in mind I created an easy to grow, for all sun conditions, and safe for the whole family medicinal plant list and tea recipe!
Medicinal Plants - Feeding Everyone
Growing medicinal plants is the ultimate way to benefit yourself, and your garden! Medicinal plants offer health benefits and when grown at home are able to be harvested at their peak medicinal value. Not only that, but medicinal plants are typically excellent pollinator plants, attracting a variety of beneficial species to the garden - boosting the productivity of food crops as well!
I have found that medicinal plants are most beneficial when grown within already existing sites. I love to include medicinals in between my food crops to attract pollinators as well as predatory insects, improving my yield while simultaneously reducing pest pressure. However, many medicinals will also grow in those craggy spots in your yard, finding a home in gravel or along the side of the house - so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t have a garden bed or a pot set up for planting, these medicinals are resilient and with a little love in their first year can return year after year providing endless bounty.
Four Medicinals To Welcome Into Your Garden
Lungwort Plant - Pulmonaria officinalis
Full Shade, moist well-drained soil
Leaves and Flowers are used
Lungwort is a shade loving plant that is not to be overlooked. It offers beautiful pink to blue flowers in the spring attracting early pollinators to the garden. Lungwort plant is used for many reasons medicinally, most often being used for lung health and tissue healing. For this purpose it is commonly used in asthma, chronic coughs, colds, irritated tummy, ulcers, eczema and wound healing.
Peppermint - Mentha x piperita
Part Shade - Full Shade, moist well drained soil
Leaves and Flowers are used
Peppermint will grow in almost any sun condition, I recommend growing it in partial shade to limit its spread by rhizomes. Peppermint is very easy to grow, adds beautiful height to a garden, and tastes 100% better when it’s grown and dried on a small scale. Peppermint is familiar to most people, but medicinally it is used to release tension within the mind, gut and musculature. Peppermint is a valuable herb to release gas, relax a spastic gut, calm mental worry, and relieve muscle pains.
Violet/Heartsease - Viola tricolor
Part Shade - Full Sun, moist well drained soil
Leaves and Flowers are used
Violet is one of the most over looked plants out there! I believe since most of us grew up with Violet, or have seen it naturalized, that it is easy to dismiss as simply an opportunistic flower and nothing more. Nothing could be farther from the truth, as Violet is great as an anti-allergic and improves the body's metabolic function to encourage elimination through the detoxification pathways. Therefore, Violet is especially valuable when dealing with food intolerances, eczema, psoriasis, and arthritis. Violet, also known as Heartease, was traditionally used for this purpose, to mend a broken heart or aid children with a tender heart.
Chamomile - Matricaria recutita
Full Sun, moist well-drained soil
Flowers are used
Chamomile is a delight to grow! It smells absolutely divine when the sun is overhead and brings a variety of life to the garden - just the thought has me anticipating its bloom! Chamomile is a relaxing sedative and known as the “Mother of the Gut” for its value with almost any gut concern. Chamomile is used for sleep disturbances, relieving irritability, IBS, food intolerances, hay fever, morning sickness and eczema.
Family Friendly Tea Recipe
2 part - Lungwort
1 part - Peppermint
½ part - Violet
1 part - Chamomile
This medicinal tea recipe is safe for the whole family (except for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers and children under the age of four - please see a herbalist before taking herbs)! When brewing tea, especially teas rich in essential oils it is important that you brew it in a teapot or a covered mug, as many of the medicinal benefits are found within the essential oils that will evaporate off without proper care. This Family Friendly Tea can be used internally and topically, for skin conditions like eczema best results will be found when using both internally and topically. This tea will calm the gut, mind and musculature, to relieve tension and mental worry, and support children growing up in a stressful world.
Interested in starting a medicinal garden suited to your families health goals? Book in with my Medicinal Landscaping Consultation service! In this service we will have a one-hour online consultation where I assess the growing conditions you provide of your garden, you (and your families) health goals, and any relevant medications or preferences to create for you a detailed plan to get started on your own healing sanctuary.
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